


Sherlock series 4 timeline, or "It is what it is"

by ShinySherlock



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Canon Timeline, Meta, Nonfiction, Timeline, Timelines, not really meta just research, sherlock s4, sherlock timeline, writing resource
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-21
Updated: 2017-01-21
Packaged: 2018-09-19 01:33:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9411503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShinySherlock/pseuds/ShinySherlock
Summary: I attempted to wrangle a timeline out of the events of series 4 of the BBC's Sherlock.





	

After much re-watching, notetaking, and googling, here is the short version (yes, the short version!) of the best timeline I could put together for the fourth series of Sherlock. Thank you to everyone who helped by signal boosting and sharing helpful links with me!

**Resources I did use:**

  * The episodes themselves. Whenever possible, the information from scenes in the show itself superseded all other sources.
  * [My HLV timeline](https://shinysherlock.tumblr.com/post/73442785234/hlv-timeline)
  * [mildredandbobbin's pregnancy timeline for Mary](http://destinationtoast.tumblr.com/post/75242715634/on-babies-and-marys-reproductive-cycle)



**Resources I did NOT use:**

  * John's blog. Too many contradictions, imo, to ever get that to line up with the time markers we have in the show itself. thenorwoodbuilder on tumblr (as well as many other folks) tried to incorporate the show events with the blog, and you can read their resulting timeline [here](http://thenorwoodbuilder.tumblr.com/post/45907280904/ok-so-i-had-my-try-at-it). 



The bad news? There are not many verifiable time anchors in series 4. A lot of this is based on playing “Guess How Old Rosie Is In This Scene.” There are also many montages and vague time gaps.

The good news? That leaves a lot of wiggle room for fic, art, meta, etc.

Holler if you see any glaring errors or if you want the long version omg.

  * **2009:** A.G.R.A. attempts hostage rescue at embassy and it goes sideways.
  * **DECEMBER 2010:** Mycroft gives Moriarty to Euros as a Christmas present. Around this time, in ASIB, Irene Adler leaves her phone for Sherlock in 221b at the Christmas party.
  * **JUNE 2011:** Sherlock jumps off roof of Bart’s.
  * **2012:** Culverton Smith has creepy meeting and tests out TD-12 on his friends and his daughter, Faith.
  * **NOVEMBER 2013:** Sherlock returns. Events of TEH.
  * **MAY 2014:** John and Mary’s wedding.
  * **CHRISTMAS 2014:** Sherlock shoots Magnussen.
  * **JANUARY 2015:** Sherlock, Mycroft, Lady Smallwood, Vivian, and Sir Edwin meet right after Sherlock leaves the tarmac.
  * **LATE JANUARY/EARLY FEBRUARY 2015:** Rosie is born.
  * **MAY-ish 2015:** Rosie throwing rattle at Sherlock, sitting up, holding head up, so that’s *minimum* three months old.
  * A lot of vague “time passing” scenes in TST--Mary traveling, John’s montage of mourning. Lots of wiggle room there. At the end of TST, Rosie looks like she’s around 6 months old (?) or so, which would put us in SUMMER 2015 at the end.
  * **SUMMER 2015:** At beginning of TLD we have no idea how much time has passed since Mary died, so you get to fill in that gap as well.
  * If we go with it not being much later and Rosie is 5 or 6 months old when TST ends, then it’s probably LATE JULY 2015 at the beginning of TLD.
  * **LATE JULY 2015 (probably):** Eurus-as-Faith goes to Sherlock to hire him. They hang out and eat chips.
  * **THREE WEEKS LATER, on a FRIDAY:** The bulk of the episode occurs on this one day. John is having his first session with Eurus-as-therapist, Hudders shows up with Sherlock in the trunk, they go to meet Culverton Smith at hospital, John beats Sherlock, Sherlock, while in his hospital bed, gets Smith to confess, John sees the DVD from Mary and saves Sherlock. Busy day. If we carry on with previous assumptions, this is happening in AUGUST 2015. How long it takes for Sherlock to recover from his injuries is not clear.
  * **SOME TIME LATER, BUT ALSO APPARENTLY SHERLOCK’s BIRTHDAY:** Sherlock and John in 221b, Sherlock sobering up. Irene Adler text. The Hug. The amount of time between this day and the day of Culverton Smith’s confession is up to you, however, Sherlock still has stitches in his face so that limits things a little. [*see note below about the date of Sherlock's birthday*]
  * **A LITTLE LATER THAT SAME DAY:** John and Sherlock in 221b prepping to go downstairs to meet Molly for cake at Speedy’s. How much time passed between The Hug and this scene? Dunno. But they’re wearing the same clothes as previous scene and the light coming in the windows hasn’t changed much.
  * **TIME PASSES.** Eurus-as-therapist reveals her true identity to John and shoots him with a tranquilizer dart, Sherlock finds Eurus-as-Faith’s note in 221b. Mycroft and Lady Smallwood do whatever they were doing in Mycroft’s office. All of this seems to be happening on the same day. No clue how much time has passed between The Hug and this therapy session.
  * **AUGUST 2015 (???):** TFP seems to pick up pretty much right after TLD: evening, Mycroft’s house, Sherlock and John prank Mycroft into revealing the truth about Eurus.
  * **THE NEXT DAY (probably):** Sherlock, John, and Mycroft in 221b during the daytime. Mycroft explains about Eurus. Patience grenade. Boom.
  * **TIME PASSES.** There is no clear indicator of how much time, though. The next scene is pirate!Sherlock commandeering the boat to infiltrate Sherrinford and the only other time anchor we have is how old Rosie looks at the very end of TFP, which is way open to debate and wiggle room. Therefore, it could be days or weeks between the patience grenade and the Invasion of Sherrinford.
  * **ONE DAY in FALL 2015 PROBABLY:** All the events at Sherrinford and Musgrave happen on the same very long day. The gap between Sherrinford and Musgrave is a very precise “hours and hours” as stated by Eurus-as-little-girl-on-plane. It’s daytime when they arrive at Sherrinford and when the Garridebs are dropped, and nighttime when Sherlock wakes up on the table in the fake room at Musgrave.
  * **SOME DAY AFTER THAT:** The Holmes parents and Holmes brothers meet in Mycroft’s office.
  * **ANOTHER DAY:** Sherlock goes to Sherrinford to play violin with Eurus. Based on Sherlock’s clothes in these scenes, it seems his parents and Mycroft join them later that same day.
  * **ANOTHER DAY:** John and Sherlock putting 221b back together--everything’s still pretty blackened and burned.
  * **ANOTHER DAY:** John and Sherlock watch Mary’s “Miss You” DVD.
  * **ANOTHER DAY:** 221b looking much better. John paints smiley back on wall. Sherlock shoots the wall. How much time would it take to get 221b looking that much better?
  * **MANY DAYS PASS:** Sherlock and John with clients, etc.  Rosie looks around a year old to me, possibly as old as 18 months--ymmv, so it could probably be anywhere between JANUARY 2016 and JULY 2016 at the very end of TFP. 



See what I mean? Enormous amounts of wiggle room at several points.

_**A note about Sherlock Holmes' birthday:** _

We have sort of agreed as Sherlockians that January 6 is Sherlock Holmes’ birthday, but how that date was chosen is pretty dubious since Uncle Arthur never straight up said when Holmes’ birthday was. [This article in the New York Times goes through how the Jan 6 date was chosen](https://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/the-curious-case-of-a-birthday-for-sherlock/).

As far as a series 4 timeline, I don’t think the writers were overly concerned with making the timeline line up with the traditional date of Sherlock’s birthday--and Sherlock never full on tells John “yes, you’re totally right, it is my birthday.” So do with that what you will. If that scene is actually set in January of 2016 (instead of summer 2015 as I hashed out in my attempt at a timeline), then the gap of time between Sherlock’s confrontation with Culverton Smith to The Hug would be *months* (from August to January, potentially). That would also make Rosie much older than around 1 year old at the end of TFP. 

So much of this boils down to “How old does Rosie look at the very end of TFP?” 

But, that also leaves TONS of room for interpretation.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to everyone on tumblr who helped with replies, signal boosts, and links when I was working on this. My main purpose in putting this together was to help fic writers write fic, including myself. :) This timeline is also available [as a tumblr post](https://shinysherlock.tumblr.com/post/156158477810/sherlock-s4-timeline).


End file.
